last week at Step Ahead

on the bus to Phuket with kids' camp

with Sibel (left) and Monika (middle) who studied Thai with Ton and me

Scary. That's all I have to say.

Cute.

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I just can't believe how time flies. It's only 2 1/2 more days until I go to Bangkok to meet up with Bronson, Evelyn and Lisa, then on to Chiang Mai to visit the German Christian school, and then back here for them to meet some of my lovely friends in Khao Lak. So this is my LAST week of teaching at Step Ahead, which I can barely grasp. I've gotten my classroom in order and saved teaching files for whoever will come teach here next (we still don't know; still praying for more volunteers at Step Ahead!). But my room is an absolute mess and I haven't started packing for Bangkok, much less for Austria and home. But what have I been doing for the past few days? Well, I've been looking at old pictures from the past year here, I've been reading a really interesting book about Thai society and culture that really makes sense after living here, I've talked to my mom on Skype, I've had dinner with my friend Gaan several nights in a row, I've made no-bake cookies (but sadly, without peanut butter), I've played volleyball and swam out to the raft- which I'm glad to see that La Flora put back out to sea, since it had disappeared during the rainy season, I've learned a few new songs on the guitar,  I've watched a Thai pop concert with Momay and Benz, and I've caught up with an old German student of mine who got married last month! And my plan for the next 3 days is to finish teaching my classes, visit my former students at the hotels and let them know about my good-bye party, prepare a sermon to teach at my church on my last Sunday, learn some Bavarian songs from Monika, and learn Thai boxing from my friend Ake at La Flora. Yes, Thai boxing. I'm so excited about it. I never really thought about doing it until I met a Norweigan girl this week who said she learned Thai boxing from Ake for 3 days and loved it. She said it's very good exercise and that she feels like she could really defend herself, if necessary, with what she learned. So when am I going to pack? Good question. 

  My emotions have been all over the place as I prepare to leave, from utter despair (sometimes I feel that way when I think about leaving Thailand) to absolute joy when I think about the people and places I'm going to see in Austria and at home. But it is going to be so hard to leave this place.  

  

 

Farewell to Paul, Kids' Camp, and... doing new things

with friends on a camping trip; weekend before Paul left

with Paul, Dao and Jeab at Paul's farewell party

working on the church mushroom farm (our first day to all work together)

Volleyball friends at La Flora Hotel! (left to right: Chon, Hot, Note)

Benz hard at work on the bag project- Thai Totes

me and Nui, our new housekeeper, trying our hand at sewing

helping with kids' camp

Adorable! I had one sleeping on each arm on the way back from our trip to the zoo and aquarium in Phuket.

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   October has been a month of LOTS of changes. On the (somewhat) minor side, John took the car up to Bangkok to use it for the Pattaya project, so now we're really doing it Thai style, driving the motorbike everywhere (and getting awfully wet, since the rainy season seems to have come late; we've had torrential downpours everyday for the past week). We got a new housekeeper at the beginning of the month, P'Nui, after P'Jeab left. P'Nui is absolutely wonderful; she works hard and she has a lovely personality. On the major side, Paul left. :( We had a big good-bye party for him; 60+ people showed up from classes and from the community, like our friends that we play volleyball with at La Flora, friends from church, and even the managers of a few hotels where we've been teaching. I was happy that several students from my Seaview class showed up, even though they hadn't even met Paul before! Paul shared an encouraging testimony about his time here, and it is clear to see that he's had a big impact in this community in just one year!

And now, things are going... hm, well different. Everything feels a little bit different. Everybody notices that Paul's gone. The past week-and-a-half have been so hard, as I can't stop thinking about how soon my own time to leave is coming, and somehow, this has the opposite effect on me from what it should have: I feel sad and... procrastinate more on doing things that I need to do! But there have been some positive changes/ things that I've noticed since Paul's been gone for this past week:
1) I drove the motorbike for the 1st time on the main road, to Pak Ping Church. 2) I listened to a whole sermon in Thai without translation, and though I didn't understand any of Ton's stories, I understood all of his main points and felt that I'd gotten the gist of it. 3) I realized that I feel really, really comfortable around Thai people and don't miss farangs much. I mean, of course I miss my family and friends, but I don't just miss being around Westerners in general, if that makes any sense. 4) I hit almost every ball over the net in volleyball yesterday (if you saw how I played when I started, you'd know why that's significant). :) The sports guys at La Flora are so sweet! I think they feel sorry for me since Paul left, so they've been taking extra care to make me feel welcome, getting me towels and letting me know I can hang out there anytime I get bored at Step Ahead. (P'Ake said, "Chabah bpen kaeg leuy:" "Chabah is a guest here.") 5) Fri.-Sat. was the first time I've helped with a kids' camp! It was really fun. It poured down rain in Tablamu and we had to stay the night at a different place than planned. On Sat. we went to the aquarium and zoo in Phuket. Nong Poom and his friend fell asleep on each of my arms on the way back. They were so cute. 6) I've spent quite a lot of time w/ P'Maeo, one of the preschool head teachers, which I think has been good for both of us. 7) I tried my hand at sewing yesterday to help w/ the bag project and discovered that I am NOT good at it. It was still a fun time w/ Benz, P'Chompoo and P'Nui, though.

   Another thing that happened this month: a group of us went on a camping trip to a beautiful waterfall on the weekend before Paul left. It was great! We went hiking, played soccer, swam in cold water, grilled and played/ sang songs until midnight.     

September... a delayed post!

with the kids at Happy Home in Cambodia

Playing Simon Says with giving directions at Chong Fah (I made a mistake as soon as we started the game!)

Games with the kids at church

Poi Pet, Cambodia

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Somehow I forgot to actually post this entry...but here is a brief summary of September! I went to Bangkok and Cambodia for my visa and passport and came back. I got to visit an orphanage called Happy Home in Poi Pet, and although it was such a short visit, I was shocked by the difference between Thailand and Cambodia (if you look at my pictures on Picasa you'll see why.) I survived the crazy political situation in Bangkok and Phuket. There have been protests going on against the government for months. The old prime minister has stepped down, but Thaksin's brother-in-law has replaced him, so the protestors are still unhappy. (Thaksin is the old PM who was ousted two years ago due to charges of corruption.) The airport in Phuket was closed because of protests when I was supposed to fly to Bangkok, but things were semi back to normal when I flew back to Phuket.

While in Bangkok (and a bit before), I suffered from some major dizzy spells that lasted for more than a week and was diagnosed with BPPV (vertigo), which also explains my extreme motion sickness. The first few days back here, I still felt dizzy and very tired and had a hard time teaching because once or twice, I felt like I'd have to throw up while I was standing in front of the class! But praise God, I've been feeling A LOT better lately.

Classes at Chong Fah and Ramada were really good; it's been so fun to have some variety in teaching by getting outside of Step Ahead to see other places.

End of class term and Julia's visit, & political instability in Thailand

Julia and I made Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian pancakes) for our students on the last day of class

students from Chong Fah

out to dinner with John. Julia and I bought the same dress. :)

Paul making friends with a water buffalo at the Moken Villae

German class

with the Ramada class

Helmets are very fashionable

Benz & Julia at the sticky rice restaurant- girls' night!

  I just can't believe how fast this past month went by, and Julia's already gone! :( We had so much fun together; I'm really going to miss her. This is what I find so difficult about being here: people are always coming and going constantly. It makes me tired.

 Yesterday it was uncertain that Julia would even be able to fly out of Phuket, because there have been some major protests against the government going on in Thailand, and the demonstrations have escalated over the past week. The protestors succeeding in shutting down the main airports in Thailand for a few days (though not for international flights from the main airport in BKK. I was supposed to fly from Phuket on the same day as Julia, and then it looked like we'd have to take a bus instead. So we bought bus tickets, but praise the Lord- late Sun. afternoon we found out that Julia would still be able to catch her flight to Bangkok! I couldn't get on my flight though, so I'm leaving in about an hour to catch the overnight bus. I'm not really looking forward to going to BKK and Cambodia because I'll traveling by myself again. I've been a bit worried about the situation here too, but Kim Quinley assured me that it's still safe to travel to BKK. I think I'll have a good time once I get there; there's always lots to do in BKK. But I also have a lot of things to take care of.

  The end of our class term was great; I think that these classes (except maybe my evening class) have been the best ones for me at Step Ahead the whole time I've been here. For our last day of German class, Julia and I made Austrian pancakes and ate breakfast w/ our students. Then they offered to cook lunch for us on Saturday at Step Ahead! One of the guys from Baan Khao  Lak (hotel) is the restaurant supervisor, and I think he can cook really well! But unfortunately, he ended up having to work, so we went out to eat instead to save time. It was still a lot of fun. On Friday night, some of our students from Chong Fah invited us to hear live music, and Julia, Paul and I were so impressed! I didn't expect the music to be that good, but it really was cool.  They were kind of a reggae/ country band, and they let us request songs. On Friday we also went to the Moken village again to teach, but this time it was me, Julia, Paul and Benz, and we had so much fun together. I'm starting to really love that village and the sweet kids. 

  It's raining now. Julia was very lucky to have so much sunshine during her stay here! Now I think it'll rain just about every day, as it normally does in the rainy season.  

   

Pranks!

Our lovely German class!

Kata Beach in Phuket- the water is much clearer than I expected!

Julia and I teaching the Moken kids (sea gypsy village)

at Khao Lak Lamru National Park

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  I think we've been watching too many episodes of the Office. We've been in a mischievous mood, and so we decided to play some pranks on Ton last Friday evening. P'Jeab invited us 

over for dinner. While Ton was in the kitchen, I stole his bag and hid it upstairs. Then I took his cell phone out and hid it in my purse, and Julia called it. He was looking around for a while before he realized where the ringing was coming from. I took his phone and hid it and called it two more times that night, but the best time was right in the middle of an intense Ligretto game- with 8 people playing (we taught the Thais how to play.) I hid his phone in a laundry basket and called him during the game. He totally fell for it again! The problem is that Julia and I can't keep a straight face, so we were trying our best not to crack up but mostly not succeeding. But Ton didn't even notice until we were getting ready to leave that his bag was missing. 

  Somehow the cell phone trick didn't really get old, because his reaction is soooo funny to watch, and he takes it well. So we did it again on Sunday, but one time while Julia and I were talking to the mayor of Takuapa and his friend, a psychiatrist (who had been invited over for a special dinner at Step Ahead). I thought I'd be pretty sly and call his phone (which I'd hidden on the stairs) while talking to the mayor, so that I could keep a straight face. But it didn't work; especially when the psychiatrist, whose name is coincidentally also Ton (!) started looking around for his cell phone. He must've had the same ring tone. Ton said, "you two again!!" and put us both in a headlock. But the pranks didn't stop there. We also got him a small brush and bottle of shampoo (because he loves his long hair), which we wrapped in shiny gold paper and gave to him, and we put a fork and a toilet paper roll in his bag on Tuesday. Julia made a blunder in Thai that led to another prank also. She learned how to say "how old are you" which translates literally as "age, how much?" But when she wanted to ask Ton how old he was, she just said "Ton, how much?" We burst out laughing. And then I said "10 baht" (about 30 cents or so). So the next day I put 10 baht in an envelope and asked Momay to write "how much? 10 baht" on the outside, and  stuck the envelope in Ton's bag.  I don't know who's going to help me pull pranks when Julia's gone!

A Day's Work

In class on Wednesday, we were talking about jobs, and one girl said she does odd jobs in the low season, such as picking fruit to sell. She told me what kind of fruit she picked, but I'd never heard of it (even after nearly a year in Thailand, I'm still discovering foods and fruits that I've never seen or heard of before.) In the evening, before we left for cell group, my student showed up at Step Ahead with a HUGE bag of fruit- her whole day's work! It was about 2 1/2 kilos. I don't know the name of the fruit in English. But I sure was impressed by her generosity.

Julia and I confused our German students with a whole bunch of vocabulary about the reception at a hotel, but then when we played hangman at the end of the hour, they had so much fun that they stayed after for almost half an hour to continue playing!

Mother's Day

Ton practicing songs with the kids before service

Julia, Dinay and I enjoying a good lunch!

Giving flowers to a lady who couldn't come

Have you ever seen kids so cute?? Seriously. 

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  I'm so behind on blogging! I can't really catch up, but I'll tell about a few things. Well, first of all, Megan left (we miss you, Megan!) and Julia came to help me teach German. German class has been so great this time! The students are all still attending class each time (unusual b/c they usually drop off around the middle of term), and they are the sweetest and most fun students! Julia and I could nearly laugh until we cried sometimes in class. I've also started teaching at Chong Fah Resort, which has a really nice swimming pool that they let us use. That is my biggest class- 18 students, which is a bit chaotic, especially since we meet in the restaurant! It's fun though. Oh, but I saw my first cobra since I've been in Thailand- it slithered across my path right on the steps leading to the hotel! I thank God that I didn't step on it, because it literally went right in front of my feet. 

  We've played a LOT of volleyball at the beach w/ our friends who work at La Flora (hotel) and then a few random Germans. We made friends w/ 4 Germans actually, and ate dinner w/ them once  and had them over at Step Ahead for lunch. The guys at La Flora gave me a Thai nickname- "Chabah"- which means hibiscus flower! I like it. Some people told me it's an old name and that Thais always like to give farangs old names (and names of flowers), but I don't mind. I like the way it sounds; it's better than some of the other funny names I've heard here, and it doesn't mean "frog" or "rat" or something similar. :)

   A few Sundays ago we had a special service at church for Mother's Day (the queen's birthday). Ton did special songs w/ the kids, and they each presented jasmine flowers to their moms. Well, I was lucky enough to be a stand-in mom for a really cute little girl whose mom wasn't there! I was happy to do the job. She hugged me for a long time, and I just wanted to cry because she was so sweet. Actually, the whole service, I think, was the nicest one I've been to since I've been here. Some of the moms of the kids from our Saturday kids class came too, which was cool. 

   Last weekend Julia and I went on a short trip to Phuket to see Pia and for Julia to see some of the city. The other girls who are either staying at or hanging around Amber's house are so sweet and so much fun! We went shopping at the night market and had a girls' night on Saturday. On Sunday Julia and I went to Kata Beach, where the water is surprisingly- amazingly- clear. We didn't swim; we just walked around and then found a really nice coffeehouse called "Summer." Then we got on the wrong bus (because when I asked the bus driver, he said that the bus DID in fact go to Bang Niang...), got off, and got on the right bus to go home.  

  

A spoonerism and a nail in Paul's foot

Paul said a couple of funny spoonerisms today, but the only one I can remember is "it's not that the sin was fruitful, but..." (he meant: it's not that the fruit was sinful...). 

 A conversation between me and Ton the other day went like this (in Thai, which is why it turned out so funny):

Ton: Where did you go eat with Kim?

Me: the Viking

Ton: Nice. Has Kim left yet?

Me: I ate pizza for dinner.

Ton: ???

Me: Wait, what did you ask me?

  This is what happens when you try to learn a foreign language.

 On a not-so- funny note, Paul stepped on a rusty nail at the beach yesterday while playing volleyball. It apparently went into his foot pretty far, but he continued to serve the ball after that! Then Megan drove him home on the motorbike, and he went to the clinic to have it cleaned and get a shot. He has a really good attitude though, and I'm amazed that he's still doing all his usual things while hobbling around a bit. 

 

 

 

A big meal, a great family, new classes, and some time with Jeab

Dinner with a few friends on Sunday night after soccer :)- and the Honeyman family with their two kids, from Bangkok

At Jeab's house

Rong (Jeab's husband), Ton, Liz! (she's visiting us for a few days)

the boys cleaning up after dinner on Sunday night

For the past three weeks, there was a lovely family from Bangkok staying here at Step Ahead-the Honeymans, with their two children and their nanny. The husband is American and the wife is Thai.  Paul and Yeewa Honeyman helped us out with several things around Step Ahead: Yeewa helped Megan translate her surveys, visited the preschools, and she taught the kids in Lam Kaen in my and Pia's place while I was in Phuket. They were so kind and generous, always encouraging us and genuinely concerned about our well-being. Sunday was their last night here, and Paul and his oldest son joined us for soccer at the beach, and then they treated all of us (almost 20 people!) to dinner at Step Ahead. We were sad to see them go on Monday morning!

 Our friend Liz, one of the British girls who taught here for two months but is now working in Bangkok, is visiting us for a few days this week! It's been so great to catch up with her. Unfortunately El couldn't come, because she's with her brother and sister at Koh Samet. 

New classes started this week, and my English classes are too small, but my German class has 8 people! I had so much fun with those students today. My evening English class is quite unique because I have two ladies who each bring their kid to class! So it's 3 adults and two kids, and one of the kids, who is half Danish, can already speak English so well. He was in my Step Ahead kids' class over the school break! And the little girl is half German. She's adorable. 

Tonight Jeab, our housekeeper, invited us from Step Ahead, plus Ton and Momay, to her house for dinner. God has been working in great ways in her life, and I learned from Benz tonight that Jeab has put her faith in Christ! God is also bringing healing and reconciliation in her marriage, and it was wonderful to see a genuine love and happiness between her and her husband. He's not a believer yet. After dinner, we talked and laughed for a long time (Momay and Ton were being very silly- as usual), and then we prayed together for God to bless Jeab's family. 

A chat with Dinay. A changed life.

Megan and I made the rounds in our neighborhood tonight on our way to the beach, stopping off for a while at Gan's to share some of our pictures of Koh Yao Noi with her, since she's adding Koh Yao to the list of tours she offers at the Green Biking Company, then saying "sawat dee ka" to the ladies at the massage shops and the guys who work at the yellow Italian restaurant, and after a few minutes at the beach (it was already late- like 9:15), stopping to chat with Dinay at his tailor shop. It's been so exciting to see him grow in his new faith in Jesus. It's so much fun to meet with Dinay whenever I have time to stop for a while. His face beams radiantly every time I see him, and he's so joyful. He's been reading the Nepalese Bible, which I had asked the Honeymans (a family helping out at Step Ahead right now) to bring down from Bangkok, every day. Last week I asked him if he had ever read the Bible before, and he said "no, this is the first time!" He is amazed by the story of Creation and the stories of Jesus in the gospels (he read John first). This week he said he went to Krabi for a few days for his cousin's wedding and that while he was there, he read his Bible aloud to some of his relatives. One of them was really interested and has kept asking Dinay if he's still reading the Bible. 

Dinay likes percentages. Tonight he said several things that made me and Megan crack up. It went something like this:

Bri: "Is it as clean in Nepal as it is in Thailand?"

Dinay: "Oh no, it's about 20% as clean as Thailand."

Bri: "Really?"

. . . .

Dinay: "I'm too dark. I wish my skin were whiter."

Megan: "I wish I were dark like you! Does my skin look darker than when I came here?"

Dinay: "Oh yes, I think you're about 20% as dark as me."

(this makes perfect sense in his mind)

. . . .

Megan: "How many languages do you speak?"

Dinay: "About 5: Nepalese, Burmese, Thai, English, and a little bit of Italian. Thai about 60-70%. English about 60-70%. Italian only about 20%."

  I might have gotten some of the details incorrect. I have a bad memory. But it was funny. 

Phuket

Amber, Pia, and Amanda

We found a Swiss restaurant!

me and Bua at her favorite coffee shop
) 

at Rajabhat (sp. ? University in Phuket)

Chinese steamed buns and hazelnut steamed milk- yum!

I'm sitting at Amber's house in Phuket, listening to the rain while Pia relaxes on the couch next to me. This week has been such a great time to truly wind down after a busy class term and some unnecessary visa excitement last week- which worked out absolutely WAY better than I could have expected. To make a long story short, while talking to Kim, my director's wife, on the phone, she asked me what was the exact date that my visa expires, and.... when I looked at my passport, it was that very day! Exactly one month after my last visa run in June. It had been stamped wrong, which somehow escaped my attention. But Benz called around and talked to people for me, and I found out that I wouldn't be deported or have to pay a big fine, but I'd just have to go to Ranong and get it re-stamped the next day. Praise the Lord! Amber had planned to rent a car anyway to pick up some of Pia's stuff, because she is in transition and will probably be moving up north to do some different work, so she ended up driving me (with Pia) all the way to Ranong, and then back to Phuket! Ten hours in the car.  The great thing is that in Ranong, I didn't even have to go on the boat! I simply walked up to the counter, explained as best I could in Thai what had happened, got my passport re-stamped and left! It was the fastest trip to Ranong ever. 

So for the past week (which ended up being a longer stay in Phuket than I'd planned), I've been able to spend some great time with Pia and Amber and her family. We've done very little; honestly I've been content to sleep in, pray and read a lot, play guitar, and help Pia think through some issues. She will most likely be going up north near Hua Hin to do some new work. I'll miss her so much. She's been one of my closest friends the whole time I've been here. Another cool thing I got to do was get to know Bua, the only Campus Crusade staff in Phuket, and visit her university and talk to her about her ministry. Bua lives with the Griffeons (Amber's family) and goes to their church. Cru recently moved all of their staff to the bigger cities, so all of the staff in south Thailand, except for Bua, are now in Hat Yai. She really has a heart for Phuket, so she asked to stay and do her master's program in Phuket.  

Island Adventures

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  On the 4th of July weekend,  Paul, Carter, Megan and I went to Koh Yao Noi, an island close to Phuket. I have to say that it was pretty much the most fun trip I've been on the whole time I've been in Thailand! It was an adventure from start to finish. We took the bus to Phuket, got off at the roundabout, and then tried to find a song thaew (taxi) to the pier, but we couldn't find one, so we hitchhiked. (Not as dangerous as it sounds- Paul assures me that he does it all the time, and he grew up in Asia). We sat in the back of a pickup truck and got there in no time. We caught a speedboat to the island, just about 30 minutes away. While on the boat, Paul made friends w/ a girl who let us get on her truck that was waiting for her at the pier, and they took us around to find a bungalow. We settled on a cute one with hammocks in front and a lot of privacy. The tide was way out, so the beach didn't look too nice, but that didn't matter b/c we could drive to another beach. We rented two motorbikes, and I got my most extensive driving experience since I've been in Thailand- before that I had only driven to the beach and on the small roads near the beach. What I didn't expect was that I'd be driving off-road, through the mud, and up and down very steep hills. That was on the 2nd day, when we went in search of the elusive "Paradise Resort." But I discovered that this type of driving was beyond my capability as a new motorbike driver with a passenger on the back (bless Megan's heart, she was brave), and on a very steep downhill part, we landed in a hole! Nobody was hurt, but I broke my flip-flop and Megan and I had a good laugh about it. 

  Another funny instance was when we went to the beach at night to collect firewood and made a fire, but we underestimated how far the tide would come back in. We were lying there, enjoying the stars and the fire when we heard water coming nearer and nearer... so we ended up wading back to our bungalow in water that was higher than my waist! Megan and I were kind of freaked out about it, which resulted in nervous but constant laughter the whole way back! 

  On Saturday afternoon we found a beautiful beach with no one on it except the four of us, and on Sunday morning we went sea kayaking out to a little sandbar with gorgeous white sand. The island itself is just a small local village, and it's not touristy at all, especially compared with Koh Phi Phi and Koh Similan. That's probably why I liked it so much. 

  On the way back, the adventures weren't over yet. As we were walking out of the pier road to hitchhike back to the roundabout, I had to sacrifice my freshly-cut mango to a band of vicious monkeys that surrounded me and would have attacked me! They were small, but I wasn't about to tangle with about 10 monkeys with sharp teeth! And then we returned home in a bus- made for maybe 40 people- but filled with 100 or so! It was the fullest bus I've ever been on in my life. I sat on Megan's lap, and people were sitting 3 to a seat and standing up from front to back, with about 13 people in the front area gathered around the driver. 

    

June- the YWAM team month!

Tobi and Arnaud baptizing Dini, a Nepalese guy who just accepted Jesus

Washing dishes at church w/ Erin and Arnaud

Teaching German with Tobi, from Switzerland

Visa run to Burma w/ the team

Praying for church members

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   I think that the month of June has possibly been the best month that I've had here at Step Ahead in many aspects. At the beginning of the month, a YWAM team with 13 people from a snowboarders' DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Davos, Switzerland came to help out with various things, including teaching classes, visiting and praying for church members, teaching English and hygiene with Pia at the Moken Village, and doing a bit of construction work at Pak Ping Church. At first I had some reservations about having such a big team come; I wondered how they would integrate here and whether there would be enough work for them to do... and quite frankly, how chaotic it would be w/ 13 extra people running around here! They're not sleeping at Step Ahead, but at a hotel right down the road from here, but they come here for all their meetings and spend a lot of time here during the day.  I don't know how many times God will have to teach me this lesson, but every time I get anxious/worried about new people coming here, I am always surprised at how much they enrich my life, how much fun we have together, and how they seem to come at just the right time. And I think the feeling is mutual. Because I've been here for a while now and can speak some Thai, I've been able to help the team out as they navigate this area and culture!  

   At first I did feel a little overwhelmed with all these people. I wasn't sure how to co-ordinate things so that they could help me with my classes, and I was hitting a brick wall in my lesson planning.  Also, honestly, I'm starting to feel tired of having so many short-term relationships: I meet people for a short time, we just start to get to know each other, and then they leave again. That is the nature of my work at Step Ahead, and not only that, it is the nature of my lifestyle for about the past 8 years of my life! (since college and afterward). It makes me feel like: why do I even want to put in the effort anymore? Why would I want to connect w/ ppl and then they (or I) leave? I received some of the best advice ever from Arnaud, the Dutch guy on the team, as we talked for a long time one evening about it. He said, "learn to be a friend wherever you go and whatever you do." It's so simple, but it made perfect sense. And I am so thankful for those whom I love back at home who keep up with me in spite of the distance. It's not the same as being able to talk to you face-to-face, but Skype helps a lot, and it provides a bit of stability in my crazy life. Though I find it tiring sometimes, I must say that I'm also happy with my life and definitely wouldn't change my decision to come here.

  I haven't been able to join the team for all of their activities, of course, but here are some of the highlights from the team's time here so far:

• having Tobi, a Swiss German, help me teach German class! It has been so fun co-teaching, and he has great ideas and interacts so well with the students. Arnaud has helped out with German class, too, and I think his Dutch accent adds a fun element. :) The English classes w/ the other volunteers have been more lively and funnier than usual, too! We did a lesson on describing physical appearance last night that had us and the students nearly in tears from laughing so hard.
• seeing a lady at our church relieved of her backache after we prayed for her
• having evening prayer & Bible study meetings (in English!) a couple times a week
• our visa run to Burma together- doing it w/ the team was 100x better than doing it by myself, and I wasn't motion sick this time! (Evelyn sent me some magnetic wristbands which must have helped)
• getting to see Dini, a Nepalese guy that Tobi, Arnaud and Rev led to Christ, baptized in the ocean this week!
• Saturday morning pancake breakfasts with the team
• watching late night soccer matches- the Euro Cup! Playing spoons, laughing a lot together. 
• big soccer matches at the beach! We had about 18 ppl playing one Sunday!
• the simple love and heart of service that I've seen in the team members.

  I'll close on that note for now. There's only about a week left, and then I anticipate a sad good-bye.